Tater Taco Casserole
This Tater Taco Casserole is a Mexican mixture of taco meat, beans, corn, and cheese topped with tater tots and enchilada sauce. The family will love this tater tot casserole (some people call it a hot dish) recipe with a spicy kick! This Tater Taco Casserole is a twist on the classic dinner.
TACO TATER TOT CASSEROLE
This Tater Taco Casserole is a dish that the whole family will love. I’ve made quite a few failed dinner attempts lately so redemption was in order.
Everyone loves tater tots and everyone loves Mexican food so why not combine the two!
Start by browning some beef, onion, and garlic. Next, we add a whole bunch of flavor so hold on to your shorts.
Add some green chiles, Old El Paso taco seasoning, black beans, corn, and cheese. So easy!
Pour this into your prepared baking dish and top with tater tots. 
Drizzle some enchilada sauce on top to give those tater tots an extra kick.Bake the casserole until the tater tots are nice and crispy. If you like your tots extra crispy you can even bake them before placing them on top.
Since this is Tater Taco Casserole we need all our taco fixings: olives, sour cream, tomatoes, and cilantro.
OTHER MEXICAN RECIPES
- Grilled Shrimp Tacos with Avocado Salsa
- Mini Chicken Chimichangas
- Grilled Chicken Tacos with Feta Cream
- Watermelon Salsa
- Baked Chicken Chimichangas
- Taco Pizza Rolls
- Taco Lasagna
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Nacho Pot Pie
- Taco Pasta
- Easy Beef Burrito Skillet
Taco Tater Casserole
This Tater Taco Casserole is a Mexican mixture of taco meat, beans, corn, and cheese topped with tater tots and enchilada sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 small onion diced finely
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 (4 oz) can Old El Paso diced green chiles
- 1 (1 oz) package Old El Paso taco seasoning mix
- 1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (12 oz) package frozen corn
- 3 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
- 1 (28 oz) package frozen tater tots
- 1 (10 oz) can Old El Paso red enchilada sauce
- Toppings: olives cilantro, sour cream, tomatoes
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. For extra crispy tater tots, bake tater tots for about 10 minutes while preparing the beef mixture - otherwise prepare as follows.
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In a large skillet, brown the beef and the onion. Add the garlic towards the end of the browning process and cook for 1 minute. Drain.
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Add the green chiles, taco seasoning mix, black beans, corn, and 2 cups of the cheese. Stir together to combine. If your skillet isn’t big enough you may need to stir it together in a bowl.
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Pour mixture into the prepared 9x13 pan. Arrange tater tots on top of the mixture in a single layer.
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Pour the enchilada sauce on top of the casserole as evenly as you can.
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Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until tater tots are nice and crispy. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of cheese on top and place back in the oven for 2-3 minutes or until cheese has melted.
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Top with olives, cilantro, sour cream, tomatoes when serving if desired.
Recipe Notes
For extra crispy tater tots, bake tater tots for about 10 minutes while preparing the beef mixture.
As a Mid Westerner, do I dare say that I like this more than the normal tater tot hotdish recipes with the can a cream stuff. I love that I can add more veggies into it as well. Today I added some red peppers and zucchini. Also, only put the enchilada sauce on 2/3 of the 9×13 because I have little kids and it works out great for their spice level.
Calories?
I found this to be bland. Maybe add some peppers into the mix. It was filling and easy to make.
This is cooking in my oven right now, looks like it’s going to be a big hit with my family! Can leftovers be frozen?
Yes absolutely!
Is this spicy???
It’s definitely very mild.
What is the calories of this
Can I make this ahead of time? And put in fridge until ready to cook?
yes, totally!
I’ve made this several times now, and it is always a hit! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Thank you David!
Can this be frozen before baking?
For what it’s worth, I did freeze this the last time I made it. I assembled everything up to the enchilada sauce (I wasn’t sure how that would affect the texture as it froze). The rest froze just fine, and I just added the sauce after I pulled it out of the freezer. In hindsight, I wish I’d thawed it in the fridge during the day before putting it in the oven for supper. I just gave it a little extra time in the oven, which turned out okay since everything was precooked anyway, but the center wasn’t as warm as I would have liked. Luckily, it makes plenty, so the middle just went for leftovers! The important part is that freezing didn’t seem to hurt the texture or flavor at all.
Yes, you would need to add some baking time to make sure everything cooks through.
This was SO good! I did the extra time in oven for the tots while making up the beef mix and really like how crispy the tots came out! The mix was delicious. My husband and I really like this. It will be made again…and again…. It was also easy to make. I like that! Really didn’t make any changes. My bag of tots was 32 oz so I used all of that. I used a mix of Mex cheese and Colby/Monterey Jack so that I could use up some loose ends. I consider these minor changes to be totally insignificant to the overall recipe Used sour cream, guac, hot sauce, cheese, salsa for toppings. Would have used cilantro, also, but didn’t have any. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Thank you Sally! That makes me so happy to hear. crispy tots are the only way to go!
I originally got this recipe from a friend years ago, but I always double check yours to make sure I’m getting time and ingredients right haha. It’s such a crowd pleaser and love how you can really make it your own. Definitely 5 stars!
Awesome!
This looks like a great way to mix up taco night. I would have never thought to combine tater tots with taco toppings but now I really want to try this. Will have to add this one to our meal plan.
Thank you!
What can I use instead of black bean, not a fan, but wanna make this recipe this weekend.
Thanks, Jan
I’ve never included black beans personally! You can really make it your own, include beans, don’t, include corn, don/t I honestly just do the meat with taco seasoning, the tots, and cheese, then add olives and sour cream after it’s done baking.
Sorry it’s too late. I would just omit them .
Hi Janet,
I would sub in pinto beans for the black beans 🙂
I LOVE this recipe!!! It’s a keeper! Thank you for sharing 😃
You’re welcome!
Can you use green enchilada sauce instead of red…..
Sure!
Could you use Pinto beans instead of the black beans?
Sure!
So delicious!! My husband asked me if this was hard to make. What he was actually asking, was if this could be made more often! 😉
Haha awesome!